Belize: Lamanai Mayan Ruins

By
Saint Greg

October 5, 2020

Lamanai (Mayan for Submerged Crocodile) is an archeological site located in the northern portion of Belize. It dates back to 1500 BC and was occupied until 1680 AD. Much of the site has not yet been uncovered but there are three incredible temples and a ball court you can visit. I moved this to the top of my Belize list because some countries have outlawed climbing on ruins and I wanted to get in while Belize still allows you to climb to the top of the High Temple.

Booking

I purchased this excursion from Carnival for $124.99. Carnival has a best price guarantee which gives you 110% of the difference in onboard credit if you can find a comparable excursion at a lower price.

I submitted the best price guarantee form for this excursion and I was awarded $32.99 onboard credit from Carnival. That brings the excursion cost down to $92. I also booked the excursion using my Carnival Mastercard which gives me a 10% statement credit on Carnival excursions. That gave me another $12.50 bringing the total cost down to $79.50.

Main Lounge

I am so glad I booked the Carnival excursion. The line for the tender/water shuttle stickers went from the alchemy area to the casino bar. I don’t need one with my CCL ticket. And I actually could’ve done the earlier version of the excursion. Their meet time was 7:30 and they left at 8:10. This is real time so you can see they’re running behind. My time was 8:15 and my excursion is way over on the second page.

Tender/Water Shuttle

The ship out in front of us is Mein Schiff 6–A German cruise ship. You can see the end of a rainbow to the left of it.

Pier

Once off of the shuttle I began looking for signs for the excursion.

And I found one. I was directed to terminal 4.

Terminal 4

And we made it to the meeting point. There are bathrooms available in here and plenty of time to use them. Through those glass doors on the left is a building where you can get your passport stamped if that interests you.

Tour Bus

When we got off the tender/water shuttle it was raining. But by the time we got on the tour bus it had stopped. We boarded at 9:55 and departed at 10:00.

There was plenty of room on the bus. I had my own row of two and there were two empty rows in front of me. We had plenty of time for people to use the bathroom in the terminal before boarding.

“You got me blacklisted at Hop Sing’s?”

45 minutes into the trip we’re in the middle of nowhere now. The tour guides are entertaining.

A couple moved to the seats in front of me. The woman is reclined. The man is eating peanuts. I feel like I’m on an airplane now.

The guy behind me keeps leaning forward with his forearms on the seat backs with his head over my shoulder. He’s probably reading this now. What’s up, yellow beard?

Nice hat choice by this tour guide.

Aiyn Ha Restaurant

At 11:25 we arrived at Aiyn Ha Restaurant.

Everyone was able to use the restroom and/or bar. I got a local beer.

Here is the price list.

The next leg of our trip includes a river boat ride from here.

Boat

Our boat departed at 11:40. We were able to take our beverages with us. We were supposed to put life vests on. Instead of running the strap around my back, I strapped in my phone. I can swim. My phone cannot.

We were going pretty fast and there were some sharp turns. One of the guides was taking peoples phones to get pictures of them. I refused as I held on for dear life to my phone and my beer.

Mr. Peanut from the bus was now working on granola bars. It turns out his left cargo pocket was a feed bag.

Lamanai

We arrived at Lamanai at 12pm. We weren’t allowed to take any beverages other than water off of the boat. I downed my beer. Once we got out of the boat it was sounding like Jurassic Park our there. It turns out it was a couple of howler monkeys going crazy.

They say this is two trees that became one. Something about birds or animals feeding on them.

We had an option for anyone with mobility issues to take a shorter route and skip the last ruin. Mr. Peanut raises his hand. It looked to me like he may have had knee replacement surgery.

We had 34 people on our tour and 3 tour guides. If you had a question and one guide didn’t know the answer another would. I found this one to be the most knowledgeable of the guides. She comes from Mayan family.

The first ruin we came to was the Jaguar Temple. They named it that because the jaguar was seen as the biggest most powerful creature in the area.

This is on each side and is supposed to represent the face of the jaguar.

The next ruin we saw was the ball court. The game they played was similar to ping pong but they hit the ball off of their arm, shoulder, or waist and try to get it in a hoop that was just barely bigger than the ball.

A member of the winning team would have to blood let to offer up blood to the gods. If it was a guy he would cut his tongue or…private area. If it was a female she would have to cut her tongue or…one of the twins.

They have some big leaves here.

The next ruin we saw was the high temple. Some climbed it. Some didn’t.

The last ruin we saw was the Mask Temple. This is the one you would have skipped if you had mobility issues.

This is a tomb near the mask temple.

After that we had quite a hike in the jungle back.

Once back to the boat area we had a few minutes to use the restroom and/or gift shops before heading back.

Boat

We boarded the boat at 1:50 and departed at 1:55.

Aiyn Ha Restaurant

We arrived back at the restaurant at 2:20. At that point we were given 30 minutes for lunch. Lunch was included with the excursion and consisted of rice and beans, stewed chicken, potato salad made with sour cream, plantains, and tang. I tried a little taste of each but I didn’t chow down like other people did. I don’t know anything about the health code in Belize.

Our bus arrived at 2:45. I was able to get my row back—yellow beard in tow. Mr. Peanut and wife sat closer to the front of the bus. Nobody was in front of me this time. The bus departed at 2:50.

Tender/water shuttle

We arrived back at the port at 4:05pm. The last tender/water taxi is at 4:15! I probably should’ve grabbed a spot at the front of the bus. There was a slowdown getting off. Maybe someone up front who had knee replacement surgery.

I made it to the tender/water taxi by 4:15 but we didn’t pull out until 4:25.